Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	law_n	liberty_n	parliament_n	4,902	5	6.1958	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52047	A plea for defensive armes, or, A copy of a letter written by Mr. Stephen Marshall to a friend of his in the city, for the necessary vindication of himself and his ministerie, against that altogether groundlesse, most unjust and ungodly aspersion cast upon him by certain malignants in the city, and lately printed at Oxford, in their Mendacium aulicum, otherwise called, Mercurius Aulicus, and sent abroad into other nations to his perpetual infamie in which letter the accusation is fully answered, and together with that, the lawfulnesse of the Parliaments taking up defensive arms is briefly and learnedly asserted and demonstrated, texts of Scripture cleared, all objections to the contrary answered, to the full satisfaction of all those that desire to have their consciences informed in this great controversie.; Plea for defensive armes	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1643 (1643)	Wing M768; ESTC R15835	25,154	32

by Edict of the Romane Empire and Licinius the Emperour of the East legum violator maximus contrary to Law and his Covenant would persecute the Christians they defended themselves by Arms and Constantine the great joyned with them And as Eusebius saith held it his dutie infinitum hominum genus paucis nefariis hominibus tanquam quibusdam corruptelis ê medio sublatis incolumes servare To deliver an infinite multitude of men by cutting off a fevv vvicked ones as the pests and plagues of the time The Christians living under the Persian King and vvronged by him sought for help from the Romane Emperour Theodosius and vvere assisted by him and vvhen the King of Persia complained that Theodosius should meddle in affairs of his Kingdome Theodosius ansvvered that he did not only protect them because they were suppliants but was ready to defend them and no way to see them suffer for Religion it being the same with their own It seems they thought it as lawfull to help an innocent people against the oppressions of their own Prince as for one neighbour to succour another against theeves and robbers The Macedonians obtained of the Emperour Constantius four thousand armed men to help them drive out the Novatians from Paphlagonia the Orthodox assisted the Novatians against the unjust violence and were armed falcibus clavis securibus with sithes clubs and hatchets and cut off almost all the Souldiers and many of the Paphlagonians At Constantinople the Orthodox defended Paulus his Election against Macedonius and his abettors though assisted with the Militarie Forces and the Historian blames them onely for killing the Commander Hermogenes Justina Valentinianus mother infected with Arianisme commanded to banish Ambrose but the people resisted and for a while defeated the plot of them who would have sent Ambrose into banishment The inhabitants of Armenia the greater professing the Christian Faith were abused by the Persians among whom they lived especially for their Religion they entred into a league with the Romanes for their safetie You see here are some examples where the ancient Christians used defensive Arms and I doubt not but such as are well read in the stories of those times might produce many more Ob. But there is one Doctour who goes about to prove by reason that oppressed Subjects should not defend themselves against their Princes though bent to subvert Religion Laws and Liberties because forsooth such resistance tends to the dissolution of Order and Government that is to disable Princes from subverting Religion Law and Liberty which is the very dissolution of all Order and Government tends to the dissolution of all Order and Government as if hindring a man from pulling down his house were the pulling down the house As if the hindring the Pilot from dashing the Ship against the rock tended to dash the Ship against the rock If any man else see any colour of reason in this reason I desire them to make it appear for for my part I can see none And indeed the case is so clear that most of them who cry down defensive Arms though they use such Scriptures and Arguments to work upon the consciences of people yet when they come to dispute it will hardly endure to have the Question rightly stated as being unwilling to dash against the rock of most learned Divines whether Protestants or Papists and I think of almost all Politicians but fall to discusse matters of fact charging the Parliament with invading the Kings just Prerogative usurping an exorbitant power and authority c. yea His Majestie in all his Declarations insists onely upon this never suggesting that in Conscience they are prohibited to defend themselves in case he should violently invade their Liberties yea expresly grants that there is power sufficient legally placed in the Parliament to prevent Tyrannie And therefore now I leave the case of Divinitie and shall more briefly give you an account what satisfied me in the second I mean matter of fact that His Majestie being seduced by wicked counsell did levie war against the Parliament My great evidence was the Parliament judged so the judgement of a Parliament of England was never questioned till now by a people of England all Patents Charters Commissions Grants Proclamations and Writs of the Kings of England receive their judgement and are often repealed and made null by a Parliament all controversies betwixt the King and Subject receive their finall determination in the Parliament the judgements of all other Courts are ratified or nullified by a Parliament I have heard some wise men say That a Parliament in England like Pauls spirituall man judgeth all and it self is judged of none and therefore if I should give you no other account of my entring upon my Office in the Armie which was not to fight nor meddle in the Councell of War but onely to teach them how to behave themselves according to the Word that God might be with them should I I say give no other account but the determination of that wise assembly I should be acquitted by indifferent men But although I had learned that no dishonourable thing should be imagined of that Honourable Assembly yet I held it my dutie not to yeeld blinde obedience or go by an implicite Faith but search whether the things were so and the rather because both sides have appealed to heaven to that God who no doubt in due time will clear the righteous cause And upon my search these things were quickly apparent It was very cleare that the persons too much prevailing with his Majesty had long before this Parliament a designe for over-throwing our Laws enslaving our Liberties and altering our Religion and it had so far prevailed that we were tantùm non swallowed up and when through the good providence of God this Parliament was called and many hopes conceived that now his Majesty seeing the mischief of adhering to such ill counsellours would for the time to come be wholly guided by the great Councell of his Kingdome alas it soon appeared that the same kinde of Counsellours were still most prevailing insomuch that soon after the pacification with Scotland the Northern Army should have been brought up to London as appeares by the very oathes of some who should have acted it a thing thou thought so pernicious that not only the chief Actors fled beyond the Seas but many reall Courtiers earnestly solicited their friends in both Houses that this their inexcusable errour might be passed over and now to begin upon a new score But that which made me the more suspect their prevailing with his Majesty was that the horrid Rebellion broken out in Ireland the Rebels pretending his Majesties and the Queenes Commission for their warrant it was at least three moneths after before they were proclaimed Traytours and when it was done no Copies of the Proclamations to be got for love or money whereas when the Scots were proclaimed Rebels and Traytours it must speedily be published in all the

themselves into Popery so many unworthy Gentlemen fight to destroy a Parliament and thereby fight themselves and posterity into slavery so many Papists in Armes contrary to so many knowne Lawes and armed with Commission to disarme Protestants contrary to their knowne Liberties and the Protestants who exceed their number an hundred fold not to rise as one man to subdue them And who would have believed that he should have seen after all this an Army raised by the Parliament in such an extremity for such an end having hazzarded their lives undergone all these hardships performed all these services and whose untimely disbanding may prove our irrecoverable ruine straitned for want of pay while England is worth a groate Behold regard and wonder marvellously I relate a thing which many will not believe though it be told unto them Hab. 1. 5. But though the Worke be harder the case is still clearer both in regard of the intentions of the Parliament and also of their adversaries For the Parliament multitudes would not believe but that they had further aimes then their own and the publique safety that they intended if not to depose His Majesty yet by force of Armes to compell him to that which is not fit for a King to yeeld to But now by their frequent petitioning of his Majestie especially by the reasonablenesse of their late Propositions and Instructions wherein they desire a present disbanding of all Arms even before any other bills were past and were willing to have the Ports Forts and Ships c. of the Kingdome resigned up into his Majesties hands provided onely that in these times of dangers they might pro hac vice be put into the hands of such as the State might confide in The sincerity of their intentions are now so plain that I think Malignity it self cannot but be convinced of them And the intentions of the contrary councels are as plain their mask now falling off and their designe more then ever discovered to be the overthrow of Parliament Liberty Laws and Religion For at first we had Declarations to preserve all the just priviledges of Parliament but now we see men proclaimed Traytors for executing the Commands of the two Houses and the two Houses themselves if not in direct yet in equivalent termes proclaimed Traytors yea denyed to be a Parliament because his Majestie withdraws himself and after multitudes of Petitions refuses to returne and because many of their Members have deserted them and are protected by his Majestie from the Houses who have sent for them Yea they are required to recall their Votes as illegall and that such as they have fined and imprisoned may bring their Habeas Corpus to be tried in an inferiour Court Yea people provoked to scorn them and thereupon multitudes not fearing to trample upon and cast as vile scorn and contempt unjustly upon that thrice-honorable Court as ever was cast justly upon the Commissaries Courts We have heretefore been assured that the knowne Lawes of the Land should be the only rule of government but to name no other instances now we see the Commission of Array to be justified to be Law which the Parliament hath not only declared but demonstrated and the Countries where ever it hath prevailed found to be the utter destruction of all the Lawes made for the Subjects liberty Heretofore Proclamations were put out that no Papists should be entertained into his Majesties Army because the resolution was to maintaine the Protestant Religion But now we see them armed and armed with Commission and Protestant Doctors in their writings justifying it and being armed dare professe their Religion publickly set up their masse in the second City of the Kingdome cutting in pieces and burning Bibles and as multitudes of reports come from beyond the Seas and the supplies that come from thence confirme it all the Papists in Christendome contributing to this War as to the Catholicke cause Heretofore the Libertie of the Subject seemed to be stood for yea defended against the Parliament as if it were possible the representative body should enslave it self and in the meane time while these things are promised hundreds yea thousands of his Majesties Subjects plundred with His Majesties Proclamations against plundering in the hands of diverse of the plunderers And their persons led away in Ropes and Chaines like Turkish Gally-slaves and many cast into Prisons and Dungeons only for defending themselves against robbers and murderers abusing His Majesties Name where their Jaylours use them worse then the Turkes doe their Christian slaves or one that hath any thing of man in him could use a dog And vvhen all these things are now done the Parliament not only sitting but having so much strength in the Field what can vve expect when these men have prevailed vvhen at the putting on of their harnesse their usuall language is nothing but blasphemy against God not to be mentioned and against His people calling all that adhere to his and the Kingdomes Cause Parliament dogs and Parliament rogues what language will you expect to heare if once they come triumphantly to put it off If while the event is uncertaine they cut us out such kinde of Lavves Liberties and Parliament priviledges as these are if GOD for our sinnes sell us into their hands thinke if you can vvhat Lavves Liberties and Parliament-priviledges our posteritie shall finde recorded in our bloud for our selves alas who shall live when God doth this Nay who would desire to live I vvould rather vvith holy Austin make it my humble suite to that GOD vvhose are the issues of life and death that Hee vvould rather take mee from the Earth then let mee live to see His deare Church and my native Countrey delivered into the 〈◊〉 of such blasphemous and barbarous men So that in stead of repenting and withdrawing from the work I could wish that my voice were able to reach into every corner of the kingdome and that I could awaken all people to see the danger and misery that is flowing in upon them That every soul might be quickened up to make his owne and help to make Englands bleeding dying Englands peace with God and every one who hath any interest in Heaven to cry mightily unto that God in whose hand the hearts of Kings are and who rules in the Kingdomes of men that the power of our God might be great towards us in turning away these imminent calamities and turning the heart of our King towards His great and faithfull Councell and rescuing Him out of the hands of this Generation of men who delight in bllood Our God hath not yet said Pray not for this people but if the Lord say he hath no delight in us Righteous art thou O Lord and just are all thy judgements onely let us not be accessary to our own destruction and the destruction of so flourishing a Kingdome let us not through our covetousnesse or cowardize selfe-love or sloth betray our Lawes Liberties Lives Religion into the hands of men from whose hands we befoole our selves if we expect more mercy or lesse misery then the poore Christians of Constantinople found with the Turkes when thankes to their owne niggardlinesse O let it never be so with England they fell into their hands Oh let us labour to prevent their Swords thrusting into our bodies and their Swords into our Soules let our God doe with us what he vvill let us doe vvhat vve should and vvhile vve have any money in our purses any blood in our veins or any spirits in us devote all to the maintenance of this rightfull cause and if vve perish vve perish Nor doe I feare to be for this condemned by any right discerning man as an incendiary to a Civill War I knovv the miseries of a Civill War Warre is the severest of all Gods judgements and Civill Warre the cruellest of all Warres vvhere is the greatest hatred the deepest treachery the most unnaturall butcheries where the father murders the sonne the sonne the Father the brother embrues his hands in his brothers blood and vvhoever gaines all are loosers 〈…〉 Cives quae tanta licentia belli Oh the 〈◊〉 of our age and Countrey If England have such a lust to War 〈◊〉 we find no forraigne Enemies but we must Warre against our selves and at this time too Cumque superba for●t Babylon Spolianda 〈◊〉 When the proud Turrets of the whore of Babylon are to be levelled with the Earth when Germany when Ireland are to be rescued out of her bloudy pawes Can vve finde no fitter Object for the fury of the Cannon then our Townes Houses Bodies But alas The Generation vvith vvhom vve have to deal had rather a thousand times see the glory of England in the dust then the pride of Rome And though a evil War be miserable yet no such misery as the peace vvhich they vvould beteeme us a Sicilian vespers or a Parisian massacre from vvhich good Lord deliver us Save Lord let the King hear us vvhen vve call Thus Sir you have my thoughts at large you may either lay this Letter by you or communicate it for the satisfaction of others at your ovvn pleasure I blesse God I am gathering strength and hope ere long by my return to my Lord and the Army if God please not to smile upon us vvith a safe Accommodation in the mean time to give a reall proofe that my judgement is the same that formerly it hath been and I hope you believe my affection is the same still to you and therefore vvithout further trouble I subscribe my selfe Your loving friend Stephen Marshall

beginning of these unhappy differences I had both learned and taught to this purpose First That it is agreeable to Gods will that in all Countreys especially when and where the people are numerous Magistracie be set up with a sufficiencie of power and authoritie to rule for the publick good and that even among them who are under the scepter of Christ against the Anabaptists Secondly That among the divers kinds of lawfull governments Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy no one of them is so appointed of God as to exclude the other from being a lawfull government Thirdly That the bounds and limits of the Magistrates lawfull power of commanding and the subjects necessary obeying must be found and taken out of the severall Laws Customes and Constitutions of those severall States and Commonwealths There are scarce two formes especially of Regall government in the world but they differ one from the other and that in matters of moment Now I say what the power of Magistrates in one Countrey differs from the power of Magistrates in another Countrey and how the duty of Subjects differs in each must be found only in the Laws of the respective places that no mans right must be detained from him that Caesar should have rendred to him the things that are Caesars and all people the things that are their own the Scripture and Laws of all nations doe determine But whether for instance in England Ship-money be the Kings right and so to be yeelded or denyed whether this house or inheritance be this or the other pretenders to it must not be determined by any Law but by the Law of England go therefore to the Lawes and learned Lawyers and from them alone you shall learn what is the Prerogative of the Prince and both the Duty and Liberty of the Subject But then fourthly comes in Religion or the command of God and binds the consciences of Magistrates to rule and of Subjects to obey according to those Lawes And fifthly in particular of Subjects it requires these four things First to render to their Governours next under God the greatest fear and honour as being Gods vicegerents as having the greatest beams of his authority put upon them and therefore called Gods and all of them the children of the most High Secondly Loyaltie to their persons and office that is obedience according to Law and patient subjection when we cannot actively obey willingly for conscience sake to submit to the penalty of the Laws when for conscience sake we cannot observe the Laws themselves Thirdly maintenance with payment of all lawfull Customs Tributes and impositions Fourthly all manner of supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks their usefulnesse being great their temptations many their fall like that of great Cedars the crushing of many and the shaking of the earth round about them and all this we owe nor onely to the King as Supream but in proportion to all inferiour Governours who are sent by God also for the punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that do well they being all the ministers of God for our good and this is the first Commandment with promise But sixthly if our Governours whether supream or inferiour leave to rule according to Law and set up their own will contrary to Law there is no word of God acquitting them from sin in Gods sight but severely threatning them for abusing his name which they bear nor any word binding the consciences of their subjects therein to yeeld them any active obedience Thus farre we have all sides agreeing in all the particulars except only a few Court flatterers who and that especially of late have endeavoured to cry up Monarchy as the only ordinance of God for the Government of States as if the other forms of Aristocracy and Democracy were not approved by him Yea and have cryed up the power and authority of princes to be such as that they are absolved from all laws and that whatsoever the Subjects enjoy under them is only by the princes favour which if they please to recall how justly or unjustly soever the subjects are bound to yeeld all unto them and have no plea against their Prince only in the Court of heaven no law no judge no Court here below having any authority to say unto him What dost thou This Divinity hath of late been preached and as sweet enchanting musicke often chanted in the ears of our Princes and no doubt was one great occasion of these heavie yokes we have of late groaned under But these absurdities need no refutation Egyptian Pharaoh claimed not the wealth of his people till he had bought it And Ahab himselfe who durst not lay claime to Naboths vineyard without purchase or colour of confiscation proclaims their ignorance sufficiently to the world And among our selves the constant proceedings of our princes even in their most heavie illegall exactions borrowing alwayes a colour of law and the known laws of the land enabling the meanest subject to maintain his Propriety even in a two-penny matter against his Soveraigne And the innumerable verdicts in all Courts passing for the Subject against the King assure me that unlesse God for our sins should give up our Parliament and State to the vassallage which this Popish Army would bring it to we shall hear no more of this Divinity The only Question now is about passive obedience they who cry down our defensive Arms confesse that the Magistrate cannot require any thing but by law and that the subject need not yeeld up his right but by Law no tie lies upon the conscience of Naboth to let Ahab have his vineyard but if a Saul will by force take away our sonnes to care his ground and our daughters to be his Confectioners Cookes and Bakers if he will by force take our fields even the best of them and give them their servants we have no help in that day but preces lachryma to cry unto our God but no liberty to defend our selves by Armes against such tyrannie if we do say they we resist the ordinance of God and must receive to our selves damnation But if this opinion be weighed in the ballance of Reason how much lighter than vanity will it be found how absurd a thing is it that these men wil allow me if the king pretend Law in any thing I may try it out with him and not when he or his Instruments come with open violence If the king will sue me and by pretence of Law seek to take away my coat my house my land I may defend these from him with all the strength of Law I can but if he come with armed violence to take away my liberty life religion I must yeeld up these without making any resistance I may secure that which I have nothing but lexterrae to plead my propriety in viz. my money which I may give away and in the mean time my liberty life religion which are mine by the laws of God and

reason the Bishop of Burgen in the Councel of Basil proved the Councel to be above the Pope and a kingdome above the King and said they were but flatterers who taught otherwise And fourthly doth not right reason as much abhor this that whereas Princes are the publick fathers and the people owe them the duty of children that these children should be prohibited from keeping their publick fathers from the greatest evils If our naturall father through ignorance or distemper should go into a pest-house his children might by force fetch him out or if in a raging passion go about to kill himself wife children or any others their children may disarm them yea we are tied not to suffer friend or foe to incurre the guilt of rapine or blood if it lie in our power to hinder it and speak to my reason what evil have Princes deserved that if they go about to murder themselves subjects and children not any of their people no not the whole body politick should have power to restrain them And if reason will allow this liberty of resistance to private persons as even Barclay and Grotius the two great propugners of the sacred and inviolable power of Kings grant how much more clear honourable and safe must such a defence needs be when done by the representative body of a state who are Gods ordinance as well as kings the ministers of God sent by him to be a terrour to evill and a praise to them that do well And in England are the highest Court of Judicature and in whom his Majesty confesses there is legally placed sufficient power to prevent Tyranny Upon such reasons as these not only Heathens have resisted their Princes when bent to subvert their laws and liberties but even most of the States of Christendome Papists and Protestants when they have been put to it have borne defensive Armes against the unlawfull violences of their mis-led Princes But now if notwithstanding all this faire shew of reason Gods word hath determined the contrary we must lay our hands upon our mouths and shall no longer deserve to be accounted the servants and subjects of Christ then while we turne our reason how specious soever out of doores when once it offers to oppose the least Iota of his revealed will But where is this Scripture to be found Certainly the good Subjects in the Old Testament knew it not Sauls Subjects who swore that Saul should not kill Jonathan nor pluck an haire from his head though Saul had sworn by God he should die knew no such Scripture and I beleeve that if the same men had bin about him when he protested the Priests of the Lord should die they would not only have with-held their own but Doegs hands from doing execution David knew no such Scripture nor the 600 men with him that would have fortified Keilah against Saul Nor those many choice men of the severall Tribes of Israel among whom were some of Sauls brethren and kindred and chief officers that fell to David though Saul had proclaimed him Traitor from day to day to help him till it was a great host like the host of God And all this while David was though an innocent yet but a private man And I think if Elias had took himself bound in conscience to render himself prisoner to the Captains which Ahaziah sent for him he would not have killed them with fire from heaven Neither would Elisha have taken such a rough course with the messengers sent to take his head Nor would the eighty valiant Priests have thrust Uzziah by force out of the Temple who was a King still though a Leper Neither can these examples be eluded with saying these were extraordinary persons for first they were not all so not the people that resisted Saul nor the people that fell to David nor the eighty Priests unlesse in the extraordinarinesse and valiancy of their spirits And for the extraordinary persons themselves I know nothing why their examples may not be pleaded for our Defensive Armes as well as Davids eating the shewbread was pleaded by our Saviour for his Disciples rubbing the ears of corn unlesse they can first shew that their practice was against a known law I mean unlesse there were some known law that Innocents might not defend themselves and one another against the unjust violence of their princes Indeed we often read in the Old Testament of fearing the King honouring the King obeying the King which their practice shews they understood to binde them to yeeld Honour Loyaltie Obedience and Subjection to their Magistrates according to law but not that they were bound to let them doe what mischief they pleased Neither is there any more in the new Testament there indeed are full and frequent exhortations to submit our selves to Magistrates to be subject to the higher Powers which are ordained of God not to resist the Ordinance of God but not one word that we may not resist the Tyrannie of men no colour for it unlesse any wil say that Tyranny is Gods Ordinance that Tyrants bear the sword for the punishment of evil doers are the Ministers of God c. full proof there is that we must be under the authority of Rulers that is under their Legall Commands not one word of being at the dispose of their illegall wills The word used there is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} derived ab {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} licet to shew as one observes that the Text bindes subjects to obey Superiours not ad libitum but ad licitum not to obey their lawlesse lusts wils but their lawfull authority without resisting And surely it were strange that if God had laid this yoke of subjection to the illegall will of Rulers that neither the Jews under their Kings nor under Antiochus nor the Churches of Christ nor the primitive Churches after once their Religion and Liberties were established by Laws nor any of the Reformed Churches have took themselves concluded under it which of all the Reformed Churches have not by their practice manifested that Religion bindes them not to give their throats to be cut or their liberties and states to be spoiled at the meer will of their Princes and their Instruments contrary to their own Laws and Edicts Were not the Lutheran Churches put to it and defended themselves against the Emperour Charles the fifth when the Smalchaldian confederacie was entring Did not both the Divines and Lawyers being consulted with agree that the inferiour Magistrates might at some time resist the Superiour Have not the States and Churches of the Netherlands done the like constantly against the King of Spain the Protestants in France against their Kings How often and how lately have our Brethren in Scotland done the same And although since the Reformation England was never put to it untill these unhappie differences yet how constantly have our most learned Divines Bishops as well as others defended by their Pens and our

that the people give no power to the Magistrate yet we will suppose it to be true what then will follow more then this That although they may not take from the Magistrate that power which God hath given him yet they may defend themselves against such unjust violences as God never gave the Magistrate power to commit A woman hath power to designe the person of her husband to her self but the authoritie of a husband is from God now though the wife may not take away the husbands just authority she may defend her self against oppression and injury Object Some alledge Gods judgement upon the two hundred and fifty Princes Numb. 16. Answ. They were Rebels against their lawfull Governours ruling exactly according to the expresse will of God And may all those perish with them who will plead for such as they are Object Others alledge 1 Sam. 8. 11. where the people are let to understand how they shal be oppressed by their Kings yet for all that have no just cause of resistance for they shall have no other remedy left them but preces lachrimae crying to the Lord Vers. 8. Answ. But saith the Text so Let us read the words a little and you shall cry out in that day Because of the King which you have chosen and the Lord shall not hear in that day Is this to say they have no just cause of resistance nor no remedy left but complaining Indeed if the Holy Ghost had said You shal not resist nor fight for your liberties c. there had been some shew of reason for such a deduction as some would extort from them but yet even then Why might not the words have been a prediction of the curse of God upon the people giving them up to such a base degenerate ignoble spirit that they shall have no heart to stand up in the defence of their liberties and lives rather then a prohibition of such resistance The Lord foretels the people Ezek. 24. 21. of calamitous times in which he tels them Verse 24. That they should not mourn or weep Will any man interpret this as if God made it unlawful for them to mourn or to weep or was it not rather a prediction of their stupidity of spirit when they should pine away under these calamities so Jere. 27. God said they should put their necks under the yoke of the Kings of Babylon Will any man thence gather That other People are bound to put their necks under the yoke of a forraign enemy invading them In one vvord the plain meaning is That this People should dearly rue it for casting off the form of Government which God had chosen for them and vvhen they should mourn under their ovvn choice God vvould not take the yoke from off their necks and so it is a threatning of a judgement not an imposition of a duty Object But David durst not lift up his hand against the Lords Anointed though he did tyrannically persecute him yea though it vvere sometimes in his povver to have killed him Answ. No man pleads that any David should kill the Lords Anointed yet he may defend himself against his unjust violence as David here did Object But if they may not kill him vvho can be secured That in a battell as at Keynton field his bullet may not hit the Lords Anointed Answ. Is this their fault vvho have so often petitioned his Majestie to vvithdraw himself from such dangerous vvayes as both the Parliament and his Excellencie hath done if their petitions vvould have been received or rather theirs who the vvorse Subjects they and the more accursed they have led Him into these unnaturall Warres and do in a manner inforce His presence in them Did they bear that affection to His Majestie as they pretend They vvould vvith Davids men Swear Thou shalt no more go out with us to battell lest thou quench the light of Israel 2. Sam. 21. 17. We have heard much of the Cavaliers svvearing but I never yet heard that one of them had the honestie to swear this Nay they are vvronged in reports if some of them have not sworn the contrarie Object But David vvould not fight against him Answ. Indeed he never did fight against him because his numbers never vvere considerable till tovvards the last but he vvould have fortified the Citie of Keilah against him And it had been a strange madnesse to have had 600. men vvith him if his conscience would have suffered him to have done nothing but flee sure one might more easily be hid then 600. But there is a plain text assuring us that David and his men vvoud have done more then run up and dovvn if occasion had served 1 Chron. 12. 16. and so forvvard When divers of the children of Judah and Benjamin came to joyne with him David vvent out to meet them and said If ye be come to help me c. But if ye come to betray me to my enemies I being innocent the God of our fathers look upon it and rebuke it Now mark their answer the spirit came upon Amasa the chief Captain and he said Thine are we David and of thy side peace be to thee and peace to thy helpers then David received them and made them Captains of the band Can any man imagine their meaning vvas to run up and dovvn the Countries vvith him if they vvere able to cope vvith any number that Saul should bring or send against them especially adding this to it That they fell to him from the severall Tribes day by day till his host was like an host of God Now by these mens argument if Davids host had been fourtie thousand and Saul come against him but with five or six hundred they must all have fled from him and not have put it to a battell Credat Judaeus Appella non ego Object But the Fathers of the Primitive times knew no defence but preces lachrymae in all their unjust sufferings Answ. 1. It follows not because they knew it not therefore we cannot know it there might be speciall reasons of Gods dispensations towards them 2. Their Liberties and Religion were not established by Law and this was the cause saith Abbot Bishop of Salisbury why the Christians in the Primitive times before their Religion was established by Law caedebantur non caedebant would rather be killed then kill But after the times of Constantine when Religion was established they shook off the yoke of persecution from the Church caedebant non caedebantur they did kill rather then be killed 3. Where did any of the Fathers ever oppose this opinion and condemn this practice that is declaring it unlawfull especially for a representative body to defend themselves against the unjust violence of their mis-led Princes I beleeve if any such testimonies were to be found the Parliament should have heard of them before this time 4. We want not examples of such defence in the Primitive times when once Religion was establisht

Churches of England I must acknowledge this made me to think that the Parliament had just cause to be jealous of great danger But when His Majesty returned from Scotland discharged the guard which the Parliament had set for their own safety and an other denied except under the charge of the Queens Chamberlain and His Majesty himself entertained divers Captaines as a super-numerary guard at Whitehall went to the House of Commons after that manner to demand the five members to be delivered unto Him The Earle of Newcastle now General of the Armie of Papists in the North sent to Hull attempting to seize it and the Magazine there his Majestie according to the Lord Digbies letters retiring from the Parliament to a place of strength and the Queen going beyond Sea to raise a partie there I must have shut my eyes if I had not seen danger and thousands of thousands would have thought the Parliament altogether senslesse if they had not importuned his Majesty as they did to settle the Militia all former settlings of it by Commissions of Lievtenancy being confessedly void His Majestie refusing this in that manner as they thought necessary for security they voted the putting of it into the hands of persons whom they thought the State might confide in though alas many of them since have discovered to us how vaine is our hope in man And secured the Town of Hull and the Magazine there soon after this his Majesty in the north seised New-Castle and under the name of a guard begun to raise an army all this was done before the Parliament voted that his Majesty seduced by wicked councell c. And when his Majesties Army was more encreased he then declared that he was resolved by strength to recover Hull and the Magazine and to suppresse the Militia After this indeed the Parliament began to make vigorous preparations by their propositions for Plate Money Horse c. This being the true progresse and state of the businesse I saw clearly all along the Kingdome and Parliament were in danger that it was therefore necessary to have the Militia and Navie in safe hands which His Majesty also acknowledged That he refused to settle it for a time in the way they conceived necessary and that by the judgement of both Houses when they were full they had power by the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome to settle it especially for a time upon His Majesties refusall That His Majesty raised force and declared it was to suppresse the Militia and recover Hull and the Magazine is as clear and made pregnant preparations both at home and beyond the Seas And the civill Lawyers say that pregnant preparations are the beginning of a War The onely Question remaining was whether the Parliament did justly in ordering the Militia and securing the Magazine and Navy in a confessed time of danger upon such his Majesties refusall What the Kings power and perogative and what the Parliaments power was for securing the Militia in time of danger according to the Laws of England was out of my profession and in great part above my skill But certainly unlesse I vvas bound rather to beleeve the Votes of the Papists and other Delinquents about his Majesty vvho hitherto had prevailed to bring upon us all the miseries that vve have laine under then the Votes and Judgements of the highest Court of Judicature in England which so far as I have heard was never by Common Law or Statute Law presumed to be guilty of or charged with the overthrow of the Kings prerogative or the Lawes and Liberties of the Subjects untill now and who have given us so much evidence of their wisdome watchfulnesse and faithfulnesse I vvas bound to be concluded under their Testimony and so consequently that His Majesty was seduced c. And surely if men vvho serve upon Justice betvveen Prince and People party and party in matters of Life or State may rest in the resolution of the learned Judges that this or that is law vvhen themselves knovv it not vvell might I rest in the judgement and resolution of that Court which is the Judge of all the Judicatures in the Land And in case I were unsatisfied to whom should I appeale in whose judgement I might more safely rest especially when I savv their Vote agreeable to that which is the supreme Law of all Nations namely that publick safety is the highest and deepest Law and that it is requisite that every State have a povver in time of danger to preserve it self from ruine and no Lavv of England more knovvne then that the Parliament is the highest Court from vvhence there is no appeal This satisfaction I had then and since by the Declarations and Remonstrances of the Parliament concerning these Military matters and by other Books lately published it is most apparent that they have not usurped upon His Majesties prerogative but what they have done is agreeable to the practice of former Parliaments In putting the Militia Forts and Navy into safe hands in these times of danger And that it vvas therefore lavvfull for them yea necessary to take up these Defensive Armes and consequently to call in for supply from all such vvho should share with them in the benefit of preservation and to disable such from hurting them who were contrary minded I spend no time to answer the Objections that some make that His Majesty could not tarry at London with safety of His Person that the Lords and Commons that are vvith Him were driven away by popular Tumults and could not enjoy freedome of their Votes c. Because I thinke these things are now beleeved by none but such as would beleeve no good of the Parliament though one should rise from the dead again Thus Sir you have a just account of the grounds that first induced me to owne this Cause you desire to know whether I see not yet reason to repent of what I have done I confesse I never undertooke any thing but I saw cause to repent of my miscarriage through the corruption which cleaves to me and great cause I have to bewaile my many failings in this great Worke but for the Worke it self I as solemnely professe I never saw cause to repent of my appearing in it the Cause is a right cause the Cause of God my call to it a cleare call and though the Work prove harder and longer then at first it was thought yet the Cause is far clearer then at the first The work indeed is harder then I expected for whoever could have beleeved he should have seen in England so many Lords and Commons even after their solemne Protestation to defend the Priviledge of Parliament and their owne Vote that His Majesty seduced by wicked councell intended War against the Parliament so shamefully to betray the trust committed to them so many of the Protestant Profession joyning with an army of Papists under pretence of maintaining the Protestant Religion against a Protestant Parliament to fight